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King Henry VII
It was, in fact, a ship commissioned by England’s very own King Henry VII which first reached the American mainland in 1497, albeit led by a Venetian captain called John Cabot.
Henry VII
John Cabot (about 1450–98) was an experienced Italian seafarer who came to live in England during the reign of Henry VII. In 1497 he sailed west from Bristol hoping to find a shorter route to Asia, a land believed to be rich in gold, spices and other luxuries.
King Henry VII of England
In 1496, King Henry VII of England granted Cabot the right to sail in search of a westward trade route to Asia and lands unclaimed by Christian monarchs. Cabot mounted three voyages, the second of which, in 1497, was the most successful.
On October 31, 1776, in his first speech before British Parliament since the leaders of the American Revolution came together to sign of the Declaration of Independence that summer, King George III acknowledges that all was not going well for Britain in the war with the United States.
John Cabot (or Giovanni Caboto, as he was known in Italian) was an Italian explorer and navigator who may have developed the idea of sailing westward to reach the riches of Asia while working for a Venetian merchant.
In 1496, King Henry VII issued letters patent to Cabot and his son, which authorized them to make a voyage of discovery and to return with goods for sale on the English market. After a first, aborted attempt, Cabot sailed out of Bristol on the small ship Matthew in May 1497, with a crew of 18 men.
In July 1497, the ship sailed for England and arrived in Bristol on August 6, 1497. Cabot was soon rewarded with a pension of £20 and the gratitude of King Henry VII. In 1474, Cabot married a young woman named Mattea.
Giovanni Caboto or John Cabot, as he was later called when he sailed under the English flag, was a skilled Italian navigator and explorer of the 15th century.
A few documents corroborate that it was named the Matthew (also spelled Mathew or Mathewe ), and some historians have speculated that it may have been named after Cabot’s wife, Mattea. John Day, a Bristol merchant, wrote in 1497-98 that Cabot “had only one ship of fifty toneless [tons] and twenty men and food for seven or eight months.”